Several Conservative MPs have expressed their concerns over new photos published by ITV News that appear to show Boris Johnson drinking at a party in Downing Street during Covid restrictions.
Foreign affairs select committee chair Tom Tugendhat told the BBC this morning: “Seriousness in government matters. It costs us all. And I’m afraid this just doesn’t look serious.”
His fellow Tory MP David Simmonds argued that the PM needed to explain the matter, explaining to the BBC: “Clearly it does raise a new question that we were all told very clearly that there definitely had not been a party on the day in question and these photographs have emerged which suggest that that’s not the case. We need to hear the Prime Minister’s explanation for that.”
However he argued that Johnson would find it “difficult” to provide an answer that pleased people, stating: “It seems to me he could construct some defence about how people were at work, but we need to see this in context. Many of my constituents lost relatives, they lost friends and family members, my father-in-law died of Covid.”
Sir Roger Gale, who has served as the Conservative MP for North Thanet since 1983, has flat out accused the prime minister of haling “misled” the House of Commons on the issue of Covid rule breaking in Downing Street.
Gale, who has previously urged Johnson to resign, said via Twitter: “I believe that the PM has misled the HoC’s from the despatch box. That is a resignation issue. I have made my own position clear.
“It is now a matter for my Conservative parliamentary colleagues to decide whether or not to instigate a vote of no confidence.”
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan also spoke on the matter this morning, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that while” Sue Gray will publish her report this week and of course the prime minister will have to answer for himself,” he thinks, “the police should explain why they reached their conclusions and provide that clarity.”
